Tag Archives: Tribes
Lin O’Neill Speaks at December 5 Book Synopsis
We are excited about our guest speaker at the December 5 First Friday Book Synopsis. Substituting for me will be Lin O’Neill, who has presented at our synopsis several times. 
Lin is an effective and innovative consultant, trainer, speaker and coach with significant experience in strategy development and implementation, entrepreneurship, transition planning, cross-functional teams, change management and process improvement.
The book she presents is a best-seller by Seth Godin, entitled V is for Vulnerable: Life Outside the Comfort Zone (New York: Portfolio, 2012). V is for Vulnerable looks and feels like a classic picture book. But it’s not for kids, it’s for hardworking adults. It highlights twenty-six of Seth Godin’s principles about treating your work as a form of art, with illustrations by acclaimed cartoonist Hugh MacLeod.
Godin is the author of 17 books that have been bestsellers around the world and have been translated into more than 35 languages. He writes about the post-industrial revolution, the way ideas spread, marketing, quitting, leadership and most of all, changing everything. You might be familiar with his books Linchpin, Tribes, The Dip and Purple Cow.
In addition to his writing and speaking, Seth is founder of squidoo.com, a fast growing, easy to use website. His blog (which you can find by typing “seth” into Google) is one of the most popular in the world. Before his work as a writer and blogger, Godin was Vice President of Direct Marketing at Yahoo!, a job he got after selling them his pioneering 1990s online startup, Yoyodyne.
In 2013, Godin was inducted into the Direct Marketing Hall of Fame, one of three chosen for this honor.
Don’t miss this synopsis. You can register by clicking here.
The “Niching” of America – Eight Observations
I just spoke at the GIFT conference for the Indiana Grantmakers Alliance, a wonderful group that serves the 90+ Community Foundations of Indiana. This is a success story that is fueled by the dreams and hard work of a state full of people with great big hearts, and is funded by people raising money throughout the state, with substantial catalytic and visionary leadership from the Lilly Foundation. (There are some great, great stories about what Foundations do in this country – and all over the world). It is a remarkable story.
But… this post is about the subject of my workshop. These Community Foundations are, of course, wanting to better engage people – donors, volunteers, nonprofits of all kinds – and I developed a workshop on “The Niching of America.” Drawing from a number of books, articles, and cultural observations, I came up with these eight observations. Some directly related to the “niching,” others just common sense advice about working in such an era.
And what is the niching of America? It is the ever-more-precise segmenting of people into groups/micro-groups/tribes (to use Godin’s term). It is the perpetual re-segmenting of people into ever smaller/precise segments throughout America. And understanding this reality is critical to getting and staying in touch, being and staying engaged, with the different tribes that make up your donor base/customer base for organizations and companies.
Here are my eight observations:
Some Key Thoughts to Ponder:
1) People are getting together – in many more ways – than ever before. And if you don’t make room for “me,” you lose “me.” And you have to “make room for me” on “my terms,” not “your terms.”
2) People want a life with no hassles. No hassles. None! Not any hassles! People don’t want hassles! And groups/tribes have to make sure that such groups are hassle-free.
• all jobs are customer service jobs; all organizations are customer service organizations; all customer service is about no hassles! PEOPLE DO NOT WANT ANY HASSLES!
3) The search for meaning in work is ongoing – and important. But meaning includes belonging, the ability to keep growing, the embrace of challenge, and the awareness that helping people really does bring meaning.
4) The segmenting will continue, and become ever more refined/ever more “micro.” We are creating more and more tribes. This will shape where we work, where we live, the people we hang out with – and what we do with our spare time, our spare money, our passion, and our “cause” energy.
5) People who are alike will find each other – and technology will accelerate this. Technology will (probably) provide the primary means for the segmenting of the groups/teams/tribes. And the “are alike” differentiators will become increasingly “micro.”
6) Our tribes will change. And loyalty – to a company, to a job, to a cause, to any tribe – can be very fleeting. Loyalty has to be earned, and re-earned, over and over again.
7) The connections will be “serial.” They may be short lived. They may be/will be constantly changing. And they will probably increasingly be “connections,” less than “relationships,” not as deep as “friendships.” But – they will may take the “emotional space” of friendships.
8) And some (much!) of this “getting together” is literally getting together. People live and work and congregate together on purpose (even if subconsciously).
And then, I ended with this:
Whatever else you do, do this with all of your social networking (and physical gatherings)
• tell the stories of success – with praise for every individual that mattered!
• Applaud every helper, donor, story of success – over and over again, with great visibility
Switch & Tribes & Many Other New Business Book Synopsis Presentations now available at 15minutebusinessbooks.com
Karl Krayer and I have just completed our 12th year of monthly presentations of business books at the First Friday Book Synopsis.
Our webmaster (thanks, Dana!) has just uploaded a number of these on our companion website, 15minutebusinessbooks.com. When you purchase one of our presentations, you receive the handout, which includes representative key quotes from the book, and an outline of the content of the book. In addition, you receive the audio of our synopsis in an MP3 format, which you can listen to on your computer, load into your iPhone/iPod, of use in any other way you would like.
The way to take maximum advantage of this is obvious – listen to the recording while following along with the handout. This is what the participants at our live monthly event do each month. But you can get plenty of information by listening alone while you work-out or drive, or just by reading the handout alone.
Here’s a testimonial from the CEO of a mid-sized, growing company. He knew that a client was a fan of one the books we had presented, and wanted to discuss the book’s implications for his business. The CEO purchased our synopsis from our site, read over the handout (he did not have time to listen to the audio), and then met with his client. The client had read the book – the CEO had not. As they discussed the book, it was clear that our handout had provided enough of the important content that the CEO actually had a better grasp of the key content and transferable principles of the book than the other person had, who had actually read the book.
If you have never ordered from us, you might want to read the FAQ’s to understand where these presentations and recordings were made, and learn a little more about what we offer. Some of these were presented by my colleague Karl Krayer, and the others were presentations I made.
Here is a partial list of the new titles now available on our site. And more are coming each month.
| 59 Seconds
Book author(s) Richard Wiseman Presented at FFBS in 2010 March |
| The Design of Business
Book author(s) Roger Martin Presented at FFBS in 2010 February |
| Fierce Leadership
Book author(s) Susan Scott Presented at FFBS in TYBTL |
| The Healing of America
Book author(s) TR Reid Presented at the Urban Engagement Book Club |
| Inside Advantage
Book author(s) Robert Bloom with Dave Conti Special Presentation |
| Mastering the Rockefeller Habits
Book author(s) Verne Harnish Special Presentation |
| Supercorp
Book author(s) Rosabeth Moss Kanter Presented at FFBS in 2010 February |
| Superfreakonomics
Book author(s) Steven D Levitt and Stephen J Dubner Presented at FFBS in 2009 December |
| Switch
Book author(s) Chip Heath and Dan Heath Presented at FFBS in 2010 March |
| Trade-off
Book author(s) Kevin Maney Presented at FFBS in 2010 January |
| Tribes
Book author(s) Seth Godin Presented at FFBS in 2009 January |
| Tyranny of Email
Book author(s) John Freeman Presented at FFBS in 2010 January |
Seth Godin on “Control” as the enemy
Seth Godin
Seth Godin’s new book, Linchpin, is making waves. He launched it with his own blogger assisted 2.0 media blitz (our own blogging team member Bob Morris was part of that – read this post, and this post), and he used the large megaphone of The Huffington Post with his own post, Is Control the Answer?, to provide a key concept of the book. It has to do with control – and control is simply not going to work in a world focused on ideas. Here’s part of what he wrote:
If you run a big factory, of course you need control. Control over when your workers come in, what they do, what they make, what happens to your inventory, where it’s sold, how it’s priced, everything. More control equals more profits, at least if the market is stable.
But if your business deals in ideas, control will stifle them.
Worse still, a rapidly changing competitive environment means that control is a losing strategy. Record companies tried to control technology and they lost. AT&T thought they could control how people used a telephone and they lost as well.
Is there any doubt that the world is going to go faster, not slower?
Now, power comes from connection and leadership and respect. The way you treat people (all of them, even those without apparent authority) comes back to you again and again, which means that our new leaders embrace dignity and respect instead of the traditional trappings of top down organizations.
Seth Godin has a great ability to take a key concept that is a perfect reflection of the era, and say – hey, pay attention to this. He grasped that the way people were connecting was creating Tribes. And now he grasps that that control is out, linchpins are in. I think he is right…
Think about this (from Godin):
Are you betting on tomorrow being more or less interesting than yesterday?
Six Realities about our current era – drawn from Penn (Microtrends), Luntz (What Americans Really Want), and Godin (Tribes)
I’m speaking at the Nonprofit Organizations Institute for the University of Texas School of Law Continuing Legal Education. (No, I am not an attorney). My assignment: American Wants and Identities: Thoughts for the Corporate and Nonprofit Sectors. I am pulling together key thoughts from two books,
Mark Penn, author of Microtrends
Microtrends: The Small Forces Behind Tomorrow’s Big Changes by Mark J. Penn and What Americans REALLY WANT…REALLY: The Truth about our Hopes, Dreams, and Fears by Frank Luntz. Both Penn and Luntz are pollsters/political strategists, on opposite ends of the political spectrum – Luntz is Republican, a frequent contributor to Fox News, and Penn worked on the Hillary Clinton Presidential campaign, and coined the phrase “soccer moms.” They have both generated controversy, but they both genuinely have their fingers on the pulse of “what Americans want” and “what Americans are like.”
Frank Luntz, author of What Americans Really Want, Really
And what we are like is this: we are segmenting into narrower and narrower groupings. We are all, in one way or another, (to borrow from Seth Godin) seeking to “find our tribe.” Here’s a key quote from the Penn book:
All these people out there living a more single, independent life are slivering America into hundreds of small niches. (The number of households in America has exploded, even though population growth has slowed dramatically).
This book is about the niching of America. How there is no One America anymore, or Two, or Three, or Eight. In fact, there are hundreds of Americas, hundreds of new niches made up of people drawn together by common interests.
I have added my own conclusions at the end of this amalgamated presentation. I arrived at these six as I re-immersed myself into these books. Here they are:
1) People are getting together – in many more ways – than ever before. And if you don’t make room for “me,” you lose “me.” And you have to “make room for me” on “my terms,” not “your terms.”
2) People want a life with no hassles – in their tribe, in their work life, in any part of their life. No hassles. None! Not any hassles! People don’t want hassles! And groups/tribes have to make sure that such groups are hassle-free.• all jobs are customer service jobs; all organizations are customer service organizations; all customer service is about no hassles! PEOPLE DO NOT WANT ANY HASSLES!
3) The search for meaning in work is ongoing – and important. But meaning includes belonging, the ability to keep growing, the embrace of challenge, and the awareness that helping people really does bring meaning.
4) The segmenting will continue, and become ever more refined/ever more “micro.” It will shape where we work, where we live, the people we hang out with – and what we do with our spare time, our spare money, our passion, and our “cause” energy.
5) People who are alike will find each other – and technology will accelerate this, probably provide the primary means for the segmenting of the groups/teams/tribes. And the “are alike” differentiators will become increasingly “micro.”
6) Our tribes will change. And loyalty – to a company, to a job, to a cause, to any tribe – can be very fleeting. Loyalty has to be earned, and re-earned, over and over again.
These are my six. You might have others. But I think these capture our era pretty well.
———–
You can purchase my synopsis of the Penn book, Microtrends, with audio + handout, from our companion web site 15minutebusinessbooks.com. The Luntz synopsis should be available at the same site soon.
News item – Mac Users are (or, at least consider themselves) more creative than other people
in the beginning...
iPhone users are happier to pay for digital content than the wider online population; while Mac users are more creative and individualistic, a pair of surveys released this morning claim.
reported on the Huffington Post
After turkey and pumpkin pie, during a lull in the football and pinochle, I read this short piece on the Huffington Post on my iPhone. Then, I got home to write this post on my iMac. (I could have posted it from my iPhone – but I haven’t tackled that much complexity and effort yet. So much for my own abilities, such as creatively learning what all I can do with what I have). Back to the news item — it pleased me that surveys show that Mac users are more creative. Here’s the summary:
Analysing aggregated data from 76,000 PC and Mac users asked about aesthetic preferences, media choices, and personality traits, the survey declares that Mac users want to be perceived as unique, prefer bold colors and retro designs, enjoy indie films, and consider themselves risktakers. Those PC users, on the other hand, are more likely to see the world as “different enough already” and appreciate “being in tune with those around them.” This is reflected in their more subtle, “mainstream modern” (neither retro nor extremely contemporary) design choices and their practical choices in clothing, footwear, and cars that favor getting the job done rather than making an overt design statement. From a personality perspective, Mac People are more likely to describe themselves as “verbal”, “conceptual”, and “risk takers”, with PC People countering that they are “numbers oriented”, “factual” and “steady, hard workers”. Interestingly, PC users like John Travolta, while Mac users prefer The Wire.
I, of course, am having fun with all of my personal Mac references. But – there is a really subtle message. I think we all want to be seen as “like” the people we want to be like. So if we want to be known as creative, even subconsciously, then we choose products that reinforce these desires. And we all know, from our earliest days, that “peer pressure,” the simple desire to be “one of the group” will dictate our choices: our purchasing choices, our vocabulary choices, our style choices – all of our choices.
In other words, we dress and talk and act like others in our tribe – in order to be seen as part of the tribe, because this is our tribe.
But back to Mac – is it any surprise that Mac users and creativity go together? Just think about the simplest illustration of this: Steve Jobs seems to be the living exemplar of creativity. Can anyone even picture Steve jobs using a PC? I rest my case.
